By Kyle Duggan
Canada Post workers are on strike Friday after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer.
Canadian Union of Postal Workers said approximately 55,000 workers are striking, claiming little progress has been made in the bargaining process.
It comes just ahead of the busy holiday season and on the heels of labour disputes at Canada’s ports.
Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said this is “really bad timing” and a terrible blow to small businesses — the bulk of which still rely on the traditional mail service.
“We’re just getting the ports back in operation and now retailers may start to receive goods again that were frozen in the ports for a while, but now they’re going to struggle to get them out to their end consumer because of the postal strike,” he said.
Kelly said this will also immediately freeze up business invoices already travelling through the mail system, sending people “scrambling to try to get money.”
He said Ottawa should step in soon to intervene with back-to-work legislation or send the matter to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers issued a 72-hour strike notice earlier in the week, saying it’s been asking for fair wages, safer working conditions and other improvements over nearly a year of bargaining.
“We still believe we can achieve negotiated collective agreements, but Canada Post must be willing to resolve our new and outstanding issues,” the union said in a statement.
Canada Post served the union with a lockout notice this week, but had said it didn’t intend to lock workers out.
The Crown corporation released a statement early Friday morning confirming that customers will experience delays as a result of the strike.
The statement said mail and parcels will not be delivered for the duration of the strike, and some post offices will be closed.
Canada Post said shutting down facilities will affect its national network, with processing and delivery of mail possibly needing time to return to normal once the strike is over.
Ahead of the strike deadline, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said he formally appointed the director general of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services as a special mediator to help in the talks.
“Our top federal mediators have been working with the parties tirelessly, and we are now sending additional resources to the bargaining table,” MacKinnon said in a post on X.
“We are making sure that these two groups have everything they need to reach a deal.”
